http:// Since blogging is now a big part of my newspaper work life, I am fascinated by www.talesblog.com, the site where 30 cocktail bloggers are posting info about Tales of the Cocktail.

At their event Wednesday afternoon, organizer Paul Clarke was kind enough to introduce me around. Seamus Harris -- of www.bunnyhugs.org -- is visiting New Orleans for the first time from Auckland, New Zealand.

"I used to live in Shanghai," Harris said. "A lot of people told me I ought to start a blog, and I love to write."

When he started to get interested in cocktails, "you have to go hunt around just to find things, all the ingredients," he said. "Then before you know it, I was buying tickets to come here."

Harris said he makes a living editing for Chinese writers. While in the states, he is researching the possibility of maybe opening a bar in Shanghai, so he spent four days in San Francisco before coming to New Orleans, and is going to the Caribbean after this.

The Caribbean is where Matt Robolod -- www.rumdood.com -- bought a bottle of rum. When he got home to Orange in Orange County, Calif., he couldn't find it. It wasn't exported. Thus was born an obsession.

The search for an obscure ingredient -- in his case, maraschino liqueur -- also eventually led to the blog www.cocktailnerd.com, which is written in Tulsa, Oklahoma by Gabriel Szeszko.

"Tulsa is a cocktail backwater, but it's a great place to live and raise a family," Szeszko said.